For years now, incompetent sources have been hearing an arbitrary interpretation that establishing the clearing of international payments with the Republic of Serbia would save the economy of Montenegro more than EUR 10 million per year, the CBCG said. In order to obtain precise data, in October 2022, the CBCG performed an analysis of the calculated fees based on payment transactions with the Republic of Serbia, which indicate the unfoundedness of these estimates.
– The total value of sent and received international payment transactions to and from Serbia amounts to EUR 998.2 million in 2020, i.e. EUR 1.48 billion in 2021. Credit institutions earned EUR 1.7 million in 2020 and EUR 2.48 million in 2021 from fees based on sent and received international payment transactions to and from Serbia. This means that on this basis credit institutions earned 0.17% of the total value of transactions, of which six out of 11 credit institutions earned less than EUR 100,000 per year on this basis. This makes it clearer that we cannot talk about systemic savings for the economy and individuals. On the other hand, it becomes more obvious why some credit institutions declared that from the point of view of the amount of costs in relation to the level of income, on this basis, they do not find a commercial reason for the establishment of this system – stated the CBCG.
More and more correspondents
Payment transactions with Serbia are carried out in the same way and under the same conditions as with any other country – through correspondent banks. The SWIFT network is used for the exchange of messages.
– International payment transactions with Serbia are in most cases carried out through correspondent banks from Germany, although the number of correspondent banks from other EU countries has been growing lately. If payment transactions are made through banks from the same group or with a correspondent bank with which the exchange of keys (RMA) was performed, they are carried out on the same day and at lower costs. Otherwise, the realization of these payment transactions is mainly in the period T0 (the same day) to T2 (the second day from the day of payment), where there is a difference in fees if the realization is to be carried out on the same day. Fees for international payments can be found on the websites of credit institutions and on the CBCG website and vary from one credit institution to another – explained the CBCG.
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